Opera Mini 4 Beta Released
Today, Oslo-based Opera Software released the public beta of Opera Mini 4, its tiny web browser for mobile phones.
The new browser, nicknamed "Dimension," borrows its navigation scheme from Opera’s successful browser for the Nintendo Wii. When browsing on the Wii, you use the Wiimote to zoom in on the parts of the page you want to view. It’s the same in Opera Mini 4 — use your phone’s thumb controls to move a small box around an "overview" of the page. Zoom in and out, scroll up or down and side to side, all with your thumb. There’s also a more traditional view that reformats the page to flow on the phone’s narrow screen.
The company is known for developing innovative hacks to suit the limitations of particular devices. A feature called "content folding" debuted in Opera Mini 3.0 — long lists of links collapse and expand with a click, which is a total thumb saver. Also, Opera compresses images and page data on a remote server before sending it to the Mini browser, keeping download times, rendering speeds and data costs low.
Granted, the "Overview" and zoom features in Dimension are no match for the iPhone’s touch-sensitive "pinch and throw" navigation, but the beta is easy to use on a variety of phones, and it’s certainly an improvement over the current experience. Also, you can’t forget that Opera Mini is a free download which runs on just about any mobile with a basic data plan (No $500 device required).
Opera Mini is the smallest browser in the Opera family. The company also makes the more robust Opera Mobile for Symbian S60 and Windows Mobile handsets, as well as its flagship product, the full-featured Opera for desktops.
The current version of Opera Mini is catching on big time — the company claims it’s seeing 13% growth per month in the U.S., and it’s served 15 million downloads worldwide since the browser’s launch last year. It’s the leader in the mobile browser market and the most popular Java application on mobile phones. Opera Mini even has a greater browser share than Mozilla.
Download the Dimension beta now at Operamini.com/beta and see a demo of the browser running virtually. Opera says the final version of Opera Mini 4 will show up in just a couple of months.
UPDATE: Opera has posted a video spoofing the iPhone in the mold of Apple’s Mac vs. PC ads. A rare thing for Opera, and pretty funny.
